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Hello everyone. Happy to be able to join the clublexus forum. My name is John. I recently purchased a 1997 LS 400 which had nearly 190000 miles on it when I bought it. I paid 1200CDN and its the 4N1 Crystal Quartz Metallic two tone color. I believe it is the base model but it has the Gold badge at the back. It has some cosmetic issues that I think I can take care of, some other issues like a broken antenna that I have no clue about. The parking break does basically nothing. Starts and drives great. I have been reading the forums and have got a few ideas from it. I plan to take care of the car's engine first. So I think I will change the ECT, $61 for the part from Toyota dealership (not bad). Also I think changing the transmission fluid would be a good idea. I have the car's mechanical repair history going back to the early 2000's and I don't think it ever was changed. I want to change all the fluids, coolant, power steering etc. Going to do an oil change soon. I am not sure of my gas mileage but I will get back to everyone with that. Somehow the car was in Canada for 16 years but I am the first one who HAD TO put in the DRL system. I will continue to read the forums but any tips you have are very welcome. Glad to be a Lexus owner.
Welcome and congrats! There are 'sticky' threads at the top of the main LS400 page—lots of great info there too. I started at the beginning and went back in time reading 7- or 8-years worth of posts. I compiled all the info I thought would be relevant to my 98 model and saved it on a flash drive. Do the oil now if you don't know the age. Do the transmission fluid over a period of time, drain out 2 quarts, add 2, etc. I made a post on that and so have many others. The 'search this forum feature' works great, but sometimes you must use trial and error for the correct search terms and/or wade through many posts to find your solution. Add some pix when you can.
This is her good side. As you can see she's had a rough life. This was apparently caused in a parking lot. The hood not lining up really bothers me. The light exterior light says Toyota on it but seems to be lower quality then the others. There are clips in there that are not clipped in to anything. When I see this I think I should have paid less. Buddy told me I could get it fixed cheap but I don't think so. If I can get the bumper off maybe I can get it back on the correct way myself. I will take care of this. Gold. And this. This is worse I think. The place where that bottom screw goes into could be ripped off pretty easily. Not that dirty. This is the quality work they did at Canadian Tire. Insisted I have DRL installed and zip tied it to my fuse box so I can't get into it.... I dunno is there a good reason for this? Maybe they thought I would be mad if he screwed it in. There is a rip in the seat I didn't get it good. Panels seem lose in this door. I think buddy told me it had the Nikamishi, or maybe he said it didnt. I dunno. Sounds nice either way. This little sun visor works. So I have over 110,000 Miles on my belt No one's dirty kids have ever been back there. Back seat it much nicer.
Thank you Fit1. Your LS400 looks really nice. I think everyone's will be nicer then mine. A little more info about the car, it had the front brakes done recently, new battery, came with newish winter tires. The previous owner said he did change the oil and that the next oil change sticker. Which reads 192000KM but should be miles is accurate. I was originally thinking I would customize it, at least with a paint job. Then I enjoyed the car so much I changed my mind to just restore and get it as close to factory as I can. Now I realize with the amount of work that I have to put into it to restore it that this probably is a better project type LS. The things I need to fix are:
Driver side body work
Parking Break
Antenna
Many Paint chips
Loose Driver Door Panels
Driver seat upholstery
That is not including any engine stuff. Anyways here are some not great pics of my 1997.
It appears your hood is high on the driver's side. Luckily, you can adjust the height relative to the fender without doing any major work.
Look for the rubber hood bumper cushions on the end of each side, and adjust the one on the driver's side. To lower the hood, turn the cushion clockwise, and turn it counterclockwise to raise the hood. These work just like screws, so if you turn it counterclockwise too much, you can just thread them back in by lining it up with the hole for it and turning it clockwise.
The first photo attached shows you about where the cushion is at the front of the hood (ignore the vin). The second photo is the cushion itself.
Here is an example video on a Toyota Corolla. The only difference is that the LS 400 has the bumper cushions mounted on the hood rather than on the radiator support.
Yours does have the interference engine so take a peek at the timing belt and make sure it’s not really bad. The other stuff will come and you’ll have a blast learning and bonding with your new find. Great color too. I think you are correct about the clips on the front bumper, but you might not have to take the whole thing off. Remove the front driver’s tire, loosen the fender well liner, and see what your dealing with. I purchased a Cadillac Deville that had a back bumper like that. I was able to pin it back together without a lot of fuss. Don’t sweat the price you paid—that’s what cash is for. Most of all enjoy the ride!
congrats on the purchase and welcome to the club. these are great cars.
unfortunately i had to vote no, this wasnt a good purchase. ive seen this car before as i live close to the previous owner and have seen it in person in the wild, parked a few times at a plaza etc..and its quite rough tbh.
although 1200$ is basically nothing, the amount of money and time youll have to spend to restore this thing will far surpass the cost of buying another in better shape with lower km's.
there are plenty of better condition ls400's that pop up for sale in far better shape and lower mileage.
dont mean to be a downer but just my honest thoughts. i love seeing these cars out and about though, whether in worse shape or better, but buying one id pay a bit more for better condition.
though i commend you on the purchase, and at least the car is in good hands of someone who plans to restore/fix it rather than destroy it
congrats on the purchase and welcome to the club. these are great cars.
unfortunately i had to vote no, this wasnt a good purchase. ive seen this car before as i live close to the previous owner and have seen it in person in the wild, parked a few times at a plaza etc..and its quite rough tbh.
although 1200$ is basically nothing, the amount of money and time youll have to spend to restore this thing will far surpass the cost of buying another in better shape with lower km's.
there are plenty of better condition ls400's that pop up for sale in far better shape and lower mileage.
dont mean to be a downer but just my honest thoughts. i love seeing these cars out and about though, whether in worse shape or better, but buying one id pay a bit more for better condition.
though i commend you on the purchase, and at least the car is in good hands of someone who plans to restore/fix it rather than destroy it
Its ok RelentLex, we can still be friends. I appreciate honesty. I understand what you mean. It was the cheapest Lexus on Autotrader.ca at the time, besides an ES300 with no engine, and I did rush the purchase a bit. I see another one on Autotrader.ca now for $2400 which does not have the issues this one does but the guy didn't respond to my lowball offer. Probably because it has $1500 worth of rims and tires on it.
This is the story of how I got it. I was looking for a used Lexus on autotrader.ca. I remembered the Legend of the LS400 and looked for one. There was one for $2500 with low KM and in Mint condition, a better package. But when I contacted the seller he said it had just been sold. The next day my #668 shows up. Its $1500 and I figure for a car that can never die it's worth it. I go up to see it, I am disappointed by the damage in person. I get to talking with the seller, he says he had just bought the Silver 1997 which I had inquired about. I tried to convince him to just sell me that one. He said he would for $3200, I wanted it for $2500, maybe I should have tried harder to get it. Settled on mine, I should have haggled more for the price because I know that body work is easy $1000 at a shop. When he started the other 1997 it sounded pretty much the same, maybe even a little more rough so I figured mine was gonna be fine. I didn't inspect the vehicle much and it was late in the day. I'm sure I made plenty of used car buying mistakes but it was my first time.
However, I have #668 now and want to do what I can. It was taken car of well until 2013. Since then it has gone through 3 other owners. Is there anything in particular you think I should know? The previous owner said he was going to make it into a drift car. He said it had been his daily since August 2018 and I think its had winter tires on it since then.
The car sounds pretty rough on start up but after driving for a while its quite. Today it began idling at a higher speed. In park it idles high, arond 1,100, but in drive it was idling around 550. Until today, now it idles in drive around 800. Gonna be looking that up in the forums. Apparently all things lead back to replace the ECU capacitors?
It appears your hood is high on the driver's side. Luckily, you can adjust the height relative to the fender without doing any major work.
Look for the rubber hood bumper cushions on the end of each side, and adjust the one on the driver's side. To lower the hood, turn the cushion clockwise, and turn it counterclockwise to raise the hood. These work just like screws, so if you turn it counterclockwise too much, you can just thread them back in by lining it up with the hole for it and turning it clockwise.
The first photo attached shows you about where the cushion is at the front of the hood (ignore the vin). The second photo is the cushion itself.
Here is an example video on a Toyota Corolla. The only difference is that the LS 400 has the bumper cushions mounted on the hood rather than on the radiator support.
Thanks so much for the info. I will look into that. I worry that mine has a bigger issue then this but I will try it and see if it can make any improvement. Thanks again.
The idle issue might be the throttle opening needing cleaned. Run some quality fuel the next fuel fill-ups and learn how to remove the air snorkel so you can look at the throttle. The poor running at start-up might be a tune up thing. You'll just have to drive it and tinker with it to iron things out. As far as your survey, a $1200 car is better than no car any day! Play with it for a while, learn, save some $, and purchase the one you really want later. The nice thing about yours is that everything you do to it will make it look better and run better - that's the fun part.
Its ok RelentLex, we can still be friends. I appreciate honesty. I understand what you mean. It was the cheapest Lexus on Autotrader.ca at the time, besides an ES300 with no engine, and I did rush the purchase a bit. I see another one on Autotrader.ca now for $2400 which does not have the issues this one does but the guy didn't respond to my lowball offer. Probably because it has $1500 worth of rims and tires on it.
This is the story of how I got it. I was looking for a used Lexus on autotrader.ca. I remembered the Legend of the LS400 and looked for one. There was one for $2500 with low KM and in Mint condition, a better package. But when I contacted the seller he said it had just been sold. The next day my #668 shows up. Its $1500 and I figure for a car that can never die it's worth it. I go up to see it, I am disappointed by the damage in person. I get to talking with the seller, he says he had just bought the Silver 1997 which I had inquired about. I tried to convince him to just sell me that one. He said he would for $3200, I wanted it for $2500, maybe I should have tried harder to get it. Settled on mine, I should have haggled more for the price because I know that body work is easy $1000 at a shop. When he started the other 1997 it sounded pretty much the same, maybe even a little more rough so I figured mine was gonna be fine. I didn't inspect the vehicle much and it was late in the day. I'm sure I made plenty of used car buying mistakes but it was my first time.
However, I have #668 now and want to do what I can. It was taken car of well until 2013. Since then it has gone through 3 other owners. Is there anything in particular you think I should know? The previous owner said he was going to make it into a drift car. He said it had been his daily since August 2018 and I think its had winter tires on it since then.
The car sounds pretty rough on start up but after driving for a while its quite. Today it began idling at a higher speed. In park it idles high, arond 1,100, but in drive it was idling around 550. Until today, now it idles in drive around 800. Gonna be looking that up in the forums. Apparently all things lead back to replace the ECU capacitors?
we can definitely be friends heh heh.
regarding to your high idle in park. I had this issue too, before doing any mechanical diagnostic i purchased a rebuilt ECU and installed, problem solved. so nothing mechanical need to be fixed. I figured id start with ECU before doing something mechanical as ECU is a common culprit for a lot of weird symptoms.
FYI buy an ECU from your LS400 year only. they are not interchangeable. At least for 95, 96, 97 models this is the case. especially 97 equipped with immobilizer
Thanks again Celsior. I adjusted it today and it looks much better. I think I still have a bit of an issue with the hood alignment but this is great! Straight across. Might sit a little higher then it should but looks %100 better.
The car is looking a little slanty here but that is mostly the driveway. The drooping front bumper does not help but it sits level on level ground.
Yours does have the interference engine so take a peek at the timing belt and make sure it’s not really bad. The other stuff will come and you’ll have a blast learning and bonding with your new find. Great color too. I think you are correct about the clips on the front bumper, but you might not have to take the whole thing off. Remove the front driver’s tire, loosen the fender well liner, and see what your dealing with. I purchased a Cadillac Deville that had a back bumper like that. I was able to pin it back together without a lot of fuss. Don’t sweat the price you paid—that’s what cash is for. Most of all enjoy the ride!
What should I be looking for in regards to the timing belt? As far as I can tell it looks ok.
06-22-19, 11:30 AM
My First Lexus LS400
